JPS60230683A - On-board navigator - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an in-vehicle navigation device that displays a departure point, a destination, and the current position of a vehicle using respective marks on a display such as a cathode ray tube.

[Prior art]

Conventional in-vehicle navigation devices, such as those disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 146814/1983, detect the distance traveled and the heading direction of the vehicle, and calculate the entire current position of the vehicle from this information. The image information of the map read from the storage device is displayed on a display device such as a cathode ray tube, and the vehicle's position on the map displayed on the screen of the display device is displayed by displaying a mark indicating the entire calculated current position of the vehicle. A device that can determine the current location M has been proposed.

However, the image information of the map is extremely large,
There is a limit to the amount of information that can be stored in a small, inexpensive storage device suitable for in-vehicle use.

Furthermore, if the starting point and destination point are fixed, even if the map is displayed on the screen of the full map display device prepared in advance in the storage device and the current location mark is superimposed on it, the actual driving The change in position is often a very limited portion of the display screen.

Furthermore, when the distance between the starting point and the destination point is long, multiple maps are used, making it difficult to understand the entire driving process.

Although it is not necessarily impossible to solve these technical problems with large-capacity storage devices and high-speed arithmetic devices, the overall scale of the devices has become increasingly large, making it difficult to install them in vehicles.

[Summary of the invention]

This invention was made with the aim of improving this drawback.The storage means stores not only the image information of the map itself, but also place names and their geographical coordinates. By specifying a place name, the control device reads the coordinates of that point from the storage means, displays marks indicating the starting point and destination point on the display means at an appropriate scale, and displays the vehicle's current position accordingly. An in-vehicle navigation device that displays a mark indicating the departure point and the destination point, and has a practically sufficient navigation function using a small and inexpensive storage device and arithmetic unit. It is.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the in-vehicle navigation device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention, in which a traveling distance detecting means 101 detects the traveling distance of the vehicle, a traveling direction detecting means 102 detects the traveling direction of the vehicle, and a traveling direction detecting means 102 that detects the traveling direction of the vehicle. The current position of the vehicle is calculated by the current position calculation means 103 from the travel distance, traveling direction, and current position initial setting value obtained by the current position initial setting means 104.

On the other hand, a plurality of sets of point information consisting of place name information and its position information are stored in the point information storage means 106, and the point information stored in the point information storage means 106 is used to specify a place name by the point information retrieval means 10. It is designed to search and read out the location information.

1, the point setting means 108 specifies the names of the departure point and destination point of the vehicle to the point information retrieval means 107, and sets each position information read from the point information storage means 106 as the coordinates of each point. I have to.

The starting point and destination point set by the point setting means 108 are output to the mark display control means 109 and the place name display control means 110. The output of the place name display control means 110 and the output of the mark display control means 109 are outputted to the display means 105.

The display means 105 is capable of two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system display and character display.

Mark display control means 109 based on the positional relationship between the departure point and destination point set by the point setting means 108
A mark indicating the position of both is displayed at a predetermined position on the screen of the display means 105, and a mark indicating the current position of the vehicle is displayed on the screen at a scale determined by this.

Also, place name display control means] 101'j The names of the departure point and destination point are displayed on the display means 105.

With this configuration, it is possible to know the approximate position of the traveling vehicle from the positional relationship between the departure point, destination point, and each mark indicating the current position of the vehicle displayed on the screen of the display means 105. It is.

Next, a specific embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on FIG. This FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a specific embodiment of the present invention based on FIG. 206.

The mileage sensor 201 corresponds to the mileage detection means 10 in FIG.
1, the rotation of the wheel is detected by an electromagnetic pickup, a reed switch, etc., and a signal having a Norms number proportional to the number of rotations of the wheel is output to the control circuit 204. This control circuit 204 includes the current position calculation means 103, mark display control means 109, point information search means 107, point setting means 108, and place name information control means 110t in FIG.

For example, the direction sensor 202 is connected to the vehicle 3 as shown in FIG.
7 lux gate type geomagnetic detector 3 fixed on 01
02 or the like, the earth's magnetic field H is decomposed and detected into a component Ha in the traveling direction of the vehicle 301 and a component Hb perpendicular to the component Ha, and a signal corresponding thereto is output to the control circuit 204.

The keyboard 203 corresponds to the current position initial setting means 104 in FIG. 1, and as shown in the external view of FIG. ...
Keys for kana characters such as ``口'', ``wa'' and ``n'', dakuten key r
ss'' and the handakuten key ``0'' (the above keys are also called character keys), and a character key part 401 consisting of the ``clear'' key.
The control key part 402 includes control keys such as "Complete", "Start Point", "Destination Point", "Set", and "Start". Note that each key is sometimes referred to as a character key "a", a character key "ki", a "clear" key, etc. The contents of the keys operated on the keyboard 203 are read into the control circuit 204.

The semiconductor memory 205 is, for example, a ROM (readon
The control circuit 2 corresponds to the point information storage means 106 in FIG.
04.

For example, Akashi City (representative points are where the city hall is located)
The point information is stored in the memories 501a to 501g' in FIG. 5, which shows the memory map of the semiconductor memory 205. Memo J501. In a to 501C, the place name information "Akashi" is stored as a code indicating the kana characters "a", "chi", and "shi".

, each memory is composed of 8 bits.

Suppose that The most significant bit of each memory 501a to 501C is for indicating that it is place name information.
A memo that remembers the last letter of place name information! j50]c
Regarding ur I J, (other memory 501a, 50
1b is assigned roJ4-.

Therefore, each note! j50] a to the remaining 7 of 501C
Represent kana characters with pits. With 7 bits, it is possible to express all the clear, voiced, semi-voiced, consonant, and persistent sounds of kana characters.

Memories 501d to 501g store location information of Akashi City, such as memo! J 501 d, 50'l'e
The east longitude is stored in the memory 501f and 501gK, and the north latitude is stored in the memories 501f and 501gK. Similarly, memo J502a to 502g are “
The location information for "Kobe" is memorized.

Further, as position information, as shown in the map of Japan in FIG. 6, for convenience, coordinate axes x+yk may be set, and relative distance coordinates (x, y) Th based on this coordinate axis may be stored.

In this case, within an area of 1,700 km square in Japan,
, '17001b are allocated to 2 bytes (16 bits) as described above, the number of bits per bit is about 26 mZ, which is a practically sufficient unit in the device of the present invention.

As for place names, there are approximately 680 cities in Japan, and there are also wards, towns, villages, interchanges, stations, castles, etc.
If we prepare about 300 place names for each unit, including lakes, mountain passes, mountains, etc., there are 138 in total for the 46 prefectures excluding Okinawa.
00 place name.

If the average number of characters in a place name is 5 characters, and the location information is 4 pies as described above (x + y each 2 bytes), 124,200 bytes are required.

To store this data, four 256-pin ROMs are required, which has the highest capacity on the market to date.
One IM bit ROM, which is expected to be commercially available in the future, is sufficient, and the semiconductor memory 205, which is small, lightweight, and highly reliable, can be used.

The cathode ray tube 206 may be a conventional one, and is assumed to have a rectangular screen 701 as shown in the external view of FIG. Note that the coordinate axes U and V are the coordinates (u,
This screen 701 displays marks for a starting point, a destination point, and a current position (details will be described later), as well as the names of the starting point and destination point.

The control circuit 204 includes a well-known microcomputer system (not shown) and various input/output interface circuits (not shown), and uses the semiconductor memory 20 based on place name information input by operating the keyboard 203.
5 reads out the position information, determines an appropriate scale in consideration of the positional relationship between the starting point and the destination point, displays a mark indicating each point, and further displays the place name of each point.Meanwhile, the mileage sensor 201 The current position is calculated based on the signals from the direction sensor 202 and the signal from the direction sensor 202, and a mark indicating the current position is placed on the cathode ray tube 2 at a predetermined scale.
06 on the corresponding coordinates of the screen 701.

Below, the operation of the control circuit 204 will be explained in FIGS. 8(a) to 8(a).
This will be explained in detail based on the flowchart shown in h).

FIG. 8 (al indicates a flowchart of the main routine, which starts when power is started to be supplied to the control circuit 204, etc.)
After initializing variables etc. in step 5101, in order, Stella fs I 02 performs point setting preparation processing, step 5103 starts point setting processing, step 5104 sets destination point, step 8105 marks/place name display processing, Stella 7'8106 repeatedly executes each subroutine of the current position initialization process.

This will be explained using a specific usage example. First, the user operates the "clear" key on the keyboard 203 before setting the starting point and destination point. For this, Stella fS 10
8, which shows the details of the subroutine of point setting preparation process in 2.
In the flowchart in Figure (b), this key operation is detected (Stella fS201.5202), and the memories for setting each point are Pn, X, Y, Sn, Xs, Ys.
, Gn, Xg, and Yg (described later) are cleared to zero (step 8203).

Next, input all the starting points. For example, if you want to set all of Akashi City, use the keyboard 203 and press each key one by one.
Operate with ``Start Point'', ``A'', ``Power'', ``C'', and ``Set''.

As a result, in the flowchart of FIG. 8 (C1) showing details of the subroutine of the departure point setting process of step 5103 in FIG. The subroutine of step 5303, a place name/spot search process, is executed.

FIG. 8 is a detailed flowchart of the subroutine in step 5303 (in step 5401 of di, 8 of the operated keys is read, and if it is determined in step 5402 that it is a character key, the character string of the place name is stored. memory Pn (n=1.2.

) in step 5403. All 1 character key
Stella fS401 to 5403 are executed every time B is operated, so "A" is stored in memory Pl, "Power" is stored in P2,
P3 stores "shi" respectively, 1, and finally the "set" key is detected by fs402.5404.
The character string “a” and “power” entered in step 5405
Semiconductor memo based on ``1-C''! J 205 k searches to find point information (memories 501a to 501g) having the character strings “a”, “chi”, and “shi”, and in step 8406 reads out the location information (memories 501d to 501g) and stores it in memory X. The contents of the memories 501d and 501e are stored in the memory Y, and the contents of the memories 501f and 501g are stored, respectively.

Next? Returning to Stella 7'S 304 in FIG. 8(c),
Input place name information (Memo 1JPn) and searched location information (Memory X, Y) 'i Memo for departure point') 5n (n
"" + 2+ "'), Xs, and YsVc, respectively.

This completes the setting of the departure point.

Next, input the destination point, but if you select Kobe cloth as the destination point, the operation order of each key is L - destination point, ``ko'', ``tsu'', ``to'', ``N'', ``set'' = ll), as described above. After operating the "destination point" key instead of the "starting point" key when inputting the starting point, each key can be operated in the same manner as inputting the place name of the starting point. Accordingly, the destination point setting process subroutine (step 5104) shown in FIG. 8(a) is executed.

FIG. 8(e) shows this subroutine (Stella f 8104
), Stella 'j'' 5501 and 5503 are steps 54 and 70 of the departure point setting process shown in FIG. 8(c), respectively.
01.5403, and step 55
02 determines whether the "destination point" key is operated instead of determining whether the "start point" key is operated in step 5402, and step 5504 determines whether the memory S n s X in step 5404 is pressed.
Instead of transferring information to s s Y s, information is transferred to destination point memories Gn, x'g, and Yg. Therefore, the operation in FIG. 8(e) is similar to that in FIG. Since the operation is similar to that shown in FIG. 8(e), a detailed explanation will be omitted.

With the above steps, the setting of the departure point and destination point is completed, so the user operates the "Complete" key. As a result, Fig. 8 (a)
) mark/place name display processing subroutine 8105 is executed.

FIG. 8(f) is the flowchart, step 5
After detecting the operation of the "Complete" key in steps 601 and 5602, as will be explained below, marks are made for the starting point and destination point, and the horizontal length Ax is virtually set in advance on the screen 701 of the cathode ray tube 206 in FIG.

A scale is determined so as to be displayed on the outer periphery 703 of a rectangular area 702 having a vertical length ty, and marks of the starting point and destination point are displayed based on this scale.

That is, since the coordinates of the departure point are (Xs, Ys) and the coordinates of the destination point are (Xg, Yg), as set in subroutines 5103 and 8104 of the departure point setting process and destination point setting process described above. , first, step 560
In 3, the east-west distance IX between the starting point and the destination point
The ratio r between s-Xgl and the horizontal length Ax of the rectangular area 702
x = tX/IXs-Xgl, and also the ratio of the north-south direction distance IYs-Ygl to the vertical length Ay of the rectangular area 702, y=Ay/IYs-Ygl, and step 560
4, compare the magnitude of this ratio rz, ry, t-row na, rz≦r
If y, then rx'ft, if r z > ry, then ry, determine the scale color (Stella f8605.

8606).

Next, the coordinates of the midpoint between the starting point and the destination point (Xo).

Yo) is calculated based on the following formula in step 5607, and the coordinates are converted and reduced by the scale r so that the midpoint corresponds to the center of the rectangular area 702, that is, the origin of u=01V=O, in step f8608 as follows: Calculate based on formula.

Here, (Us, Vs) are the coordinates of the starting point on the screen 701, and (Ug, Vg) are the coordinates of the destination point, and it is clear that these coordinates are on the outer periphery 703 of the rectangular area 702.

Next, in Stella fS 609, the coordinates (Us.

Va) (Ug, Vg) K, as shown in FIG. 9(a), a display signal is output to the cathode ray tube 206 to display a starting point mark 901 and a destination point mark 902.

Finally, in step 5610, a signal is output to display the place names of the departure point and destination point based on the memories Sn and Gn.

An example of the display is shown in Figure 9 (a) of the coffin.
1 Upper left Vcr start J Below that is the place name of the starting point.
"Akashi", also in the upper right corner is "Goal", and below it is the name of the destination "Koupe".

Now, when the vehicle 301 shown in FIG. ), operate the "Start" key. As a result, Stella fs 1 in FIG. 8(a)
The current position initialization processing subroutine of 06 is executed.

FIG. 8 (g+ shows the flowchart, the operation of the "start" key is detected in steps 5701 and 5702, and the coordinates (Xs, Ys) of the starting point are determined in step 5703.
A memo for the coordinates of the current position used to calculate the current position.
)Xp, yp.

When the departure point, destination point, and current position are set as described above and the vehicle continues to travel, unit travel - distance dt ( For example, an interrupt signal is input to the microcomputer every 1 m).
) executes the interrupt processing routine shown in the flowchart.

In FIG. 8 Φ, first, in step S80, the azimuth signals Ha and Hbi are input, and the geomagnetic field B and 717 shown in FIG.
Angle θ between both 301 and the traveling direction 303 Total step 5
In step 802, it is calculated using the following formula (% formula %).

Next, each direction component dxSdyi for each coordinate axis x, y of the unit traveling distance di is calculated based on the following formula in 803, and added to the integrated values xp, yp of the coordinate components of the current position in step 5804. .

Next, in step 5805, the coordinates (uplvp) on the screen 701 are calculated based on the scale r, and the coordinates (uplvp) on the screen 701 are calculated as shown in FIG. 9 in step 8806. As shown in (b), a signal is output to display the mark 903 of the current position.

The present invention is configured as described above, and when a departure point and a destination point are specified by place name, the control circuit 204 reads out the position information of those points from the point information stored in advance, and uses this as the starting point. Set the coordinates of the point and destination point, display both points as marks on the cathode ray tube 206 at an appropriate scale, and display the place names of these two points on the cathode ray tube 206.
By displaying the current position as a mark that is roughly calculated moment by moment, we have realized a navigation function that is extremely suitable for in-vehicle use, as described below.

First, the semiconductor memory 205 does not store map image information as it is, but stores point information consisting of place name information and its position information as basic elements, so that it can cover a wide range of areas. It becomes possible to memorize point information.

Second, since the starting point and destination point are specified by place name and pre-stored position information is read out and set as the coordinates of both points, accurate positions can be set with a simple operation.

Thirdly, based on the distance and positional relationship between the starting point and the destination point, marks 901 and 902 indicating both are displayed at appropriate positions on the screen 701, and a mark 903 indicating the current position of the original image is displayed at a scale determined by this example. Since it is displayed, the user can be spared from troublesome operations such as setting the position of each mark and setting the scale.

Fourth, by displaying the place names of the departure point and destination point, there is no need to worry about forgetting the place names of each set point.

In this embodiment, the point information storage means 106 in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, if a large capacity storage device such as a ROM or floppy disk is used, even more point information can be stored. Needless to say.

Further, instead of inputting with a keyboard, a voice input device may be used.

Furthermore, instead of the cathode ray tube 206, a dot matrix type liquid crystal display device or the like may be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention stores place names and their geographical coordinates in the storage means, and when the place names of the departure point and destination point are specified by the input means, the control device stores the place names and their geographical coordinates in the storage means. The coordinates of that point are read out and marks indicating the departure point and destination point are displayed on the display means at an appropriate scale.A mark indicating the current position of the vehicle is displayed along with the marks, and the names of the departure point and destination point are also displayed on the display means. This has the effect of realizing a navigation function that is sufficient for practical use while satisfying the vehicle installation requirements of being small, inexpensive, and easy to operate.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the in-vehicle navigation device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific embodiment of the invention based on the in-vehicle navigation device of FIG. Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the orientation sensor in the navigation device shown in Fig. 2, Fig. 4 is an external view of the keyboard in the in-vehicle navigation device shown in Fig. 2, and Fig. 5 F
iA diagram showing a memory map of the semiconductor memory in the in-vehicle navigation device shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 6 a map of Japan for explaining the in-vehicle navigation device shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. External view,
8(a) to 8(h) are 70-charts for explaining the operation of the control circuit in the in-vehicle navigation device of FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a display on a cathode ray tube in the in-vehicle navigation device shown in FIG. 2; 101... Travel distance detection means, 102... Travel direction detection means, 103... Current position calculation means, 104...
・Current position initial setting means, 105...Display means, 10
6... Point information storage means, 107... Point information search means, 108... Point setting means, 109... Mark display control means, 110... Place name display control means, 201
... Mileage sensor, 202 ... Orientation sensor, 20
3... Keyboard, 204... Control circuit, 205.
...Semiconductor memory, 206...Cathode ray tube. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts. Agent Masuo Oiwa Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3, Figure 4 401 402 Figure 5! Part-time job C8 Pitno 05 6th degree diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] A traveling distance detecting means for detecting the traveling distance of the vehicle, a traveling direction detecting means for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, and a traveling distance obtained by the traveling distance detecting means and the traveling direction obtained by the said traveling direction detecting means. 7. Current position calculation means for calculating the current position of the vehicle; performs initial setting of the current position for this current position calculation means; current position initial setting means; display means capable of two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system plane display and character display; point information storage means for storing a plurality of sets of point information consisting of place name information and its position information; and point information storage means for specifying a place name. By doing so, a point information retrieval means searches for a corresponding place name from the point information storage means and reads out its position information; A point setting means for setting each position information read by the point information retrieval means as the coordinates of each point, and a mark indicating the position of the departure point and destination point set by the point setting means based on the positional relationship between the two points. An in-vehicle navigation device comprising a mark display control means for displaying a mark indicating the current position on the screen of the display means on the screen, and a place name display control means for displaying the names of each place of the departure point and the destination point on the display means.